Mac Miller in Ottawa; a minute with SonReal and Rich Kidd [Article/Interview]

Ottawa, ON – The sold-out Larry Fisherman Tour concluded in Ottawa on January 15th. The Ontario exclusive dates featured two of Canada’s most vivacious up-and-coming performers, SonReal and Rich Kidd. Mac Miller had announced plans for the college tour with the two who are known as The Closers in their conspired form, in the late months of 2012. The GTA-Vernon duo were in cahoots with the 21-year-old Penn State rapper for five live dates before reaching Cap City and showing out with an outstanding opening performance.

HipHopCanada caught up with the SonReal and Rich Kidd following the set for some perspective on 2013 for the group and their solo efforts. Check out the interview and event coverage after the jump.

Wasting no time as they took the stage, SonReal and Rich Kidd set it off with their collaboratively released EP, The Closers by Black Box Music. This was their second Ottawa appearance in a little over a month; the pair made a stop in the capital during a nation-wide tour commemorating the EP release on November 29th at Ritual Nightclub. SonReal and Rich Kidd went in with a sequence of features off the self-titled EP, including “Hometown” and “Real Life”. They closed off with a sermon of gratitude for the Ottawa crowd and cleared the stage for Miller’s finale act. Being no strangers to HipHopCanada, SonReal and Rich Kidd posted backstage after the curtains dropped to shed some light on their future agenda.

“[SonReal] and I are planning on releasing our own solo albums for 2013,” said Rich Kidd. “… Separate but you know, definitely featuring each other in some way, fashion or form. Aside from solo projects, I’m doing some mixtapes to lead up to the album with a short movie as well. Look out for singles and visuals from the both of us.”

Rich Kidd also announced potential connections with Arthur McArthur, Big Pops, Lord Quest and Junior T for miscellaneous projects to look out for in 2013.

“We haven’t really set anything in stone for another collaboration, we’ll most likely come out with something new in the future to continue where [The Closers] left off,” said Rich Kidd. “It all depends on the platform and the fans as well; if they request it then yeah, we’ll be back in the studio together for a next album.”

Fans anticipating a follow-up to The Closers may have to get comfortable with the 2012 release. The production of a second joint effort may happen, however SonReal and Rich Kidd will be focusing on individual releases for the new year.

“I wouldn’t call it a hiatus” said SonReal. “We’re still going to be doing things like picking up the odd tour with big artists and possibly do our own dates. Rich and I are always going to work together, that’s the kind of artists we are.”

“Now that The Closers is done and fully promoted we’re going to take time to do our solo thing,” he continued. “We’re both solo artists when it comes down to it, we just came together for an amazing project.”

As the other half of The Closers, SonReal also plans on staying well-knit with Rich Kidd as far as features with one another on releases. Although, individual work for the West coast rapper is still in the early stages.

“I can’t even elaborate that much” said SonReal on the expectancy of new projects. “But, I can say I have a solo album coming out in the summer. I’ll also have a mixtape release leading up to it. For anyone that doesn’t know, I put out a lot of material regularly; new singles, new videos.”

On touring the province with Mac Miller, SonReal says, “It’s good, man. Playing with him on the entire tour was extremely inspiring. His whole camp has everything so together and they work so well. We’re learning a lot from these guys. I mean, Mac Miller is one of the biggest rappers in the world right now. We learned a lot.”